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Portrait image of Dashiell Hammett Photo: AP / TT

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Hammett, Dashiell

American detective writer, born in St. Mary's County in Maryland. He grew up in Baltimore where his family moved when he was seven years old. Dashiell Hammett dropped out of school when thirteen and got on with odd jobs before ending up a private detective at Pinkertons. He worked as a detective primarily in San Francisco and then used his experiences in his novels. During the First World War,...

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Literary figures

John Silence

Gender: Male

Algernon Blackwood wrote only six short stories about John Silence, ‘physician extraordinary’, but the mysterious, rich doctor with unnatural psychic powers is nevertheless a classic as the ‘occult detective’. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes, he uses logical reasoning to expose ‘magical’ criminal deceptions, but uses his psychic ability to solve mysteries – the result is horror fiction with a detectiv...

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